Challenge
When using vCenter 4.0 unable to perform replication if target host doesn't have the same vNetwork as source. Replica network re-mapping doesn't work either.
Replication job fails to register replica VM with the following error:
Failed to register VM, configFile '[Datastore01] VM_replica/vm_replica.vmx', name 'VM_replica', isTemplate 'False', poolRef 'resgroup-1',
hostRef 'host-1', folderRef 'group-v1' at Veeam.Backup.ViSoap.CSoapConnection.RegisterVM(String configFile, String name, Boolean isTemplate, String poolRef, String hostRef, String folderRef)
vSphere also shows an error event: Failed to register VM.
Cause
vCenter 4.0 doesn't allow registering a VM with a VMX file which contains vNetwork settings that do not exist on the target host.
For example, source VM has a DVS switch, which doesn't exist on the target ESXi 4.0 in vCenter 4.0:
(from source VMX file)
ethernet0.virtualDev = "vmxnet3"\n
ethernet0.dvs.switchId = "a3 cb 3a 50 fb 26 46 bf-0d 67 88 01 74 a5 98 fa"
ethernet0.dvs.portId = "231"
ethernet0.dvs.portgroupId = "dvportgroup-1"
ethernet0.dvs.connectionId = "5895333"
When portgroupId = "dvportgroup-1" does not exist on the target host. vCenter refuses to register such VM.
Solution
Algorithm of replication job is the following:
1) upload original VMX file to the target datastore;
2) register replica VM on target with original VMX file;
3) request vCenter to change vNetwork settings of the newly registered machine.